Friday, June 09, 2006

Here are the insane comments of Russophile nut-job Peter Lavelle on press freedom in Russia:

Who says the Kremlin can’t take criticism? I personally witnessed Vladimir Putin get an ear full at this week’s World Association of Newspapers. President of the association Gavin O'Reilly laid in hard and then some. Putin replied with his usual – and, I my opinion correct mantra – that the chaos of the 1990s and media unprofessionalism were factors in creating the media of today. Additionally, as head of WAN, O'Reilly appeared to talk more about the electronic media than about newspapers. The condition of Russia’s media (all media) is not great, but it has been far worse off. Print media has far more interesting and diverse that can be found in the US and the Internet in Russia is thriving. Most Russian language television broadcasts are of little interest to me – too much entertainment (though I can’t say entertainment is uninteresting for the average viewer or say that is not a money maker for advertisers – the Russian advertising market is growing by leaps and bounds).

Apparently, LaVelle does not read much. If he did, he would have seen the Carnegie center obliterate this argument about newspapers (La Russophobe's readers certainly have). Newspapers are meaningless in Russia, as everyone except a crazed Russophile propagandist like LaVelle knows full well.

And what was LaVelle smoking when the wrote that Russian newspapers are "far more interesting and diverse than can be found in the U.S."? There is such thing as Time, Newsweek or the New York Times equivalents in Russia, to say nothing of the New Yorker or Sports Illustrated. Russian newspapers and magazines are like brochures, with anonymous reporters and stories easily bought and sold. Would LaVelle care to elucidate the racial "diveristy" of Russian news staffs and news coverage? The exposition of American culture and history? America's famous Gugenheim just had a major retrospective on Russian art -- has a major Russian museum done the same for America? No answers from LaVelle, he'd prefer to go on smoking loco weed.

Sure, the wretched specatcle of Russian "journalism" may be "interesting" in the same way that people turn their heads to look at an "interesting" car wreck, but that is hardly the point. In fact, it is the opposite of the point, which was LaVelle trying to argue that Rusisan media isn't a sick joke. One heard wretched drivel like this during Soviet times, when everything in the USSR was better than what America had, just before the USSR suddenly ceased to exist. But at least then, the USSR was a mysterious place and it might have been vaguely rational to think Westerners could be duped. Now, LaVelle is just making a fool of himself.

And why compare only America? Since when was American media the main topic of discussion? What about Britain, France and Germany? What about Japan? Is LaVelle betraying his latent Anti-Americanism and mind-bending, nauseating hypocrisy all the while he condemns Russophobia? It seems obvious.

After all, if Russian media at any level was worth spit, would Russians really be giving Vladimir Putin 70% approval ratings when the population of the country is dropping by 1 million per year and a bloody terrorism continues in Chechnya, while the average salary languishes at $300 per month?

But insane Russophile maniacs like LaVelle, of course, have never cared about facts. That is why Russia now stands on the brink of oblivion even as the lunatic fiddler LaVelle plays on.

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PUTIN MUST FREE THE NEMTSOV WHITE PAPER!

That craven coward Vladimir Putin is censoring the brilliant, courageous and patriotic research of former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov reviewing Putin's record in office. We demand this outrage cease immediately. Read the paper in English PDF here. The HTML version (can be cut and pasted) is here.

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Tell all the truth but tell it slant,Success in circuit lies:Too bright for our infirm delightThe truth's superb surprise.

As lightning to the children easedWith explanation kind,The truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind.

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From childhood's hour I have not beenAs others were, I have not seenAs others saw, I could not bringMy passions from the common spring.From the same source I have not takenMy sorrow, I could not awakenMy heart to joy at the same tone,And all I loved, I loved alone.Then in my childhood, in the dawnOf a most stormy life was drawnFrom every depth of good and illThe mystery which binds me still:From the torrent, and the fountain,From the red cliff of the mountain,From the sun that 'round me rolledIn its autumn tint of gold;From the lightning in the sky,As it passed me, flying by,From the thunder, and the storm,And the cloud that took the form(When the rest of Heaven was blue)Of a demon in my view.

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Girl Power: Ginger Rogers could do everything Fred Astaire could do . . . backwards, and in high heels.

Pioneer Power: Though he painted more than 1,000 works of art in his lifetime, Vincent Van Gogh sold only two.

Mark Twain: "It's a man with very little imagination who can only spell a word one way."

Socrates: "To be is to do." Sartre: "To do is to be." Sinatra: "Do be do be do."

Girl Power: On May 14, 2006, a perfect game was pitched in the Oakfield, New York Little League. Perfect as in 18 consecutive strikeouts. The pitcher's name? Katie Brownell. She's the only female player in the league.

Girl Power: On April 13, 2007, the Independent reported that women will soon be able to produce sperm cells from their bone marrow, making men obsolete.